Blog Revival...maybe

Facebook is so easy.  I log on, take a quick look.... Or maybe NOT so quick. But it's immediate.  I don't have to come up with a decent-sized post; it could just be a quick sentence or even a sound effect. Aaargh!! And the feedback is fairly immediate too.  Sometimes it becomes a chat time with somebody. BUT.... I sort of miss blogging.

I spent a few hours today dusting off this old blog.  It had broken links and other outdated features and I couldn't fix them without updating my whole template to Blogger's "new" format which is actually years old now!  So, I finally took the plunge and switched to the new template and then worked to make it look as much like the old one as I could.  Can you tell I hate change?!

In the left-hand sidebar (unless I've moved it to the right) you will see an archive of my blog.  Beside the year it shows the number of posts for that year. Notice that in 2008 there is a remarkable drop in the number of posts.  That was the year that Levi was born and I got a lot busier.  After 2008 my blog pretty much died.  Why?  I signed up for a Facebook account in December of 2008 and basically neglected my blog from there on out.  Maybe nothing will change now, but at least my links and things in the blog are current and I can make quick fixes again as necessary.

See you around.  Maybe!

Spooning

I've been in need of spoons. We've lost a couple to the garbage disposal over the years, we've added a couple of people over the years, and my pattern (Amadeus) was discontinued YEARS ago. I watch eBay and I've picked up a few that are similar but not quite as nice and they're about $3 PER spoon!

Fast-forward to today >>>>>> I'm cleaning in the garage, organizing my canning jars, etc.... I come across a box I have no recollection of. It's a 45-piece set (UNOPENED) of MY silverware! What an unexpected blessing. I must have bought it some time ago and put it away for later. Well, it's later. I pilfered the spoons and put the rest away... for later. Hopefully I'll remember it's out there.

Didja miss me?

It's been well over a year since I've posted anything on this blog. Sad. I was just saying on Facebook that I miss blogging but I love FB more and I don't have time for both. But within 5 minutes here I am....

I'm sure the links on my sidebars are outdated and broken. Maybe I'll get around to fixing that... maybe I won't.

Facebook sure provides me with connections to people, daily, that I wouldn't otherwise have. That has an instant gratification element to it that blogging doesn't provide. But blogging provides a digital diary of sorts that I can't achieve at FB. Hmmmm. What to do... Maybe try both again. We'll see.

Anywhooo, nice to be back. For a minute anyway! ☺

Why I'm AWOL

What I've done today (Oct 10th):

diaper
nursing
breakfast/refereeing
rocking
schoolwork
peeling apples
bathroom
nursing
diaper
schoolwork
laundry
hollering
cooking apples
rocking
e-mail
mashing apples
craft beads
refereeing
give a test
lunch
nursing
diaper
baby swinging
peeling apples
rocking
explain perfect tenses
cooking apples
stepping on craft beads
mashing apples
phone call
change toddler
nursing

I quit making the list because I just didn't have time. I've been reading blogs intermittently but I've no time/energy to post. I miss it but I AM enjoying my little lambs. That's a good thing.

Here's an article about why we maybe should avoid calling our children "kids": Is There A Better Word Than Kids?

Baby Levi at 2 1/2 months:

Hope Fulfilled

I forgot that I posted last October about planting tulip and daffodil bulbs. I came across the post a couple of days ago while reading through my archives. I'm so glad that I bothered to take pictures of the flowers before they dried up. I bet they would have lasted longer if I had watered them, ya think?

Enjoy a glimpse of God's handiwork in His world:

Seven-Year-Old Sings National Anthem

This is amazing! Hat tip to Rocks In My Dryer for the link to this video.



Yes, it bugs me, too, that no one is placing their hand over their heart whilst he sings. But other than that, wow!

(I'm staring at the word too in the sentence above and can't figure out if the commas are correct or not. Now too is looking very strange to me. Ahhhhhh! Help!)

MIRLing in Idaho

I've MIRLed! I think it was KimC at Life In A Shoe that coined that term*. She defined it very well anyway even if she didn't make it up! I've finally Met In Real Life Roberta from Debtor2Mercy. We've been talking for a while about getting together, since we totally live close enough to do that, and today we finally did it. We met at a restaurant for lunch after church and had a great time. Her husband and oldest child were gone hunting and so were Jim and our three older kids. I just had Abby and she had her three younger ones. Her youngest is one day older than Abby so it was fun to compare notes. It's impossible to have the amount of conversation over lunch that we've had brewing in us, I think, so we left the restaurant to continue our conversation at my house. BUT, when we got there we discovered my family had returned. So she only stayed long enough to meet everybody and take a tour of my backyard and then she left. We'll have to get together again soon. It was great fellowship and great fun. Thanks Roberta (& kids)!!

Anybody you wish you could MIRL?
__________________________________
*Okay, I researched the word (MIRL) and it was Shannon from Rocks in my Dryer that requested a verb for 'Meeting In Real Life'. Valerie from Many Mundane Moments that came up with MIRL and KimC that expanded the definition on Rocks in my Dryer! Aren't you glad you kept reading this post so you could get this fascinating etymology?! :-)

Favorite (Foto) Friday

What I harvested from my neglected garden:
Click on picture to enlarge. I apologize that it's so dark!
A garden forgotten by me since we started back to school but remembered by the Lord, the Giver of all good things.

The grapes you see are only a token amount of what is in my back yard. I have a lot of grape jelly to make! The parsley I will dry and put away to use this fall and winter. The tomatoes and onions are about to become spaghetti sauce. The pumpkins are headed for the front step to decorate for fall. The green pepper will end up on my pizza. The carrot will be eaten as soon as I finish this post. The potatoes will make a nice dinner for Abby and I. (Everyone else is up in the mountains deer hunting.)

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 1 Cor. 3:7

October Winds

It's October and I'm lovin' it. I love it that winter is just around the corner. I love it that we are back to schooling. I love it that the weather is cooler and it's time for flannel sheets. I ♥ my bed any ol' time but I really love it in the fall and winter seasons. I unearthed my sheets and my down comforter and so they would smell all fresh and lovely, I washed the sheets and hung them on the line. I hung the comforter on the line to air out too. I sure appreciate that I have a covered patio because that allowed me to put my clothesline there and I line dry laundry rain or shine. I didn't used to avail myself of my clothesline in the fall but I am doing it this year. In fact whenever the wind is a blowin' I feel like I'm squandering an opportunity if I don't have some laundry out there. Anywho, my cozy flannel sheets are on my bed, my down comforter is tucked into my denim duvet cover, October winds are blowing, and winter's on it's way. Life is good.

Casting Crowns Concert

I went to the Casting Crowns concert in Boise tonight with my daughter, Rebecca. Oh.My.Goodness. I don't know if I'll ever be able to put into words how great it was. All I can say right now is we serve a big, big God and I am so blessed to be called His child. I've never been to a concert where the seven members of the group sit at the front of the stage and spend 20 minutes taking turns praying for the audience. Each member focused on a particular thing. I can't remember all seven but one prayed for young men and the decisions that they are making that will affect who they become and the kind of fathers and leaders they will become. One prayed for encouragement for those in ministry. One prayed for marriages and for wives to learn what it means to really submit to their husbands and that husbands would just love their wives the way Christ loves the church. One prayed for the members of the audience who don't yet have a relationship with Jesus. One prayed for the fatherless, and one prayed for mothers, for mothers in the trenches of raising childen, for the heartache of losing a child, and for the ones desiring to become mothers. It was a good thing we got napkins at the concession stand earlier because I was a teary mess. The mention of the heartache of losing a child especially touched me because I'm very much aware of the fact that my former due date was two weeks from yesterday. (It's strange to think that I'd be delivering a baby very soon if I hadn't miscarried. It's been so many months ago now it seems crazy to think that I was supposed to be having a baby this month. Perhaps that's a different post.... back to the concert.)

Ack. I feel like I have Niagra Falls trying to fit through a 1" pipe! Apparently I can say more than I first intimated! :-) There's so much to talk about.

Rebecca liked the opening group, Leeland, better than Casting Crowns but she did like CC. She commented that the main singer looked like he was too young to be touring the United States. (When Leeland began playing/singing I thought "Oh my goodness. I'm old. What have I done and why am I here?" I'm too old for this. I enjoyed CC much better and Leeland really was okay. Their music is a bit wild but carried a good message nonetheless.) She didn't like the video plugs for WorldVision. Seeing the plight of children in third-world countries is really upsetting to her and causes her several sleepless nights. (I didn't realize we would be seeing that. I still would have taken her had I known.) When CC sang their last song and the lights were extinguished and we were standing and applauding, I leaned over to Rebecca and said, "They are clapping to bring them out again. They will come out and sing one more song." "How, do YOU know?" she asked. I said, "This isn't my first concert!" It was funny! I got to go to a concert again for the first time. She thought it was just silly and they should have stayed out there and sung the song without leaving first. At one point they let the drummer rip. Rebecca liked it but thought it dragged on too long. Really, it was impressive. He was quite skilled and in a strange way it was neat to see/hear. I reminded her of how she feels when she gets to run, really fast. Run as hard as she possibly can without having to stop until she wants to. It's a good feeling to do someting you love and that you are good at and to do it to the utmost. I said I think it feels like that to him. She nodded. She understood that feeling. The really cool thing was he did that and he gave it to to Lord. I saw that happen. It was beautiful... and it was really, really loud drums. Go figure.

Are you still reading all of this? Sorry that I'm so chatty... it was a great mountain-top experience and I want to remember what I'm thinking and feeling right now.

The thing I loved most was the meatiness of the lyrics. Casting Crowns doesn't spend much time on feel-good songs. Here are some examples of ones that particularly challenged me:

And the voice of truth says "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth - Voice of Truth
*****

Just love her like Jesus, carry her to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don't need the answers to all of life's questions
Just know that He loves her and stay by her side
Love her like Jesus
Love her like Jesus - Love Them Like Jesus
*****

Jesus, I'm trying so hard to stop trying so hard
Just let You be who You are
Lord, who You are in me - The Altar and the Door
*****

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive
It's all because the blood of Jesus Christ
That covers me and raised this dead man's life
It's all because of Jesus I'm alive - All Because of Jesus
*****

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captives free
And not let Satan have one more

What if the church for heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took and stand upon God's promise
And stormed hell's rusty gates

What if His people prayed
And those who bare His name
Would humbly seek His face
And turn from their own way... What If His People Prayed

Want a taste of our evening? The following videos will do that for you.

The Altar and The Door Tour Preview (2 1/2 minutes)


The Altar and the Door Sneak Preview - with Mark Hall (almost 6 minutes but SOOO good! If you only watch one of these videos, watch this one.)


I'll stop now. It's 2 am. I think I'm finally winding down... Typing sure is getting difficult. :-) Tickets to this concert were a great gift from my husband. I am blessed, I am encouraged, I am challenged, I am convicted, I am refreshed, I am humbled, I am grateful.

I am tired. G'night.

Cousins Camp 2007

My daughter, Rebecca, has posted her Cousins' Camp report on her blog, Just Horsin' Around. Give her a thrill and go read and comment.

peanut butter, paws, & predicaments

Updated*

Okay, Internet, I've got a question for you.

First I have to tell you that I've been doing a pretty good job of transforming my life into a frugal lifestyle. Okay...I've made a few positive changes. Not a major transformation, yet. But it's happening. It's mostly in my head but a frugal lifestyle IS mostly about attitude and how you view life. To quote the DeputyHeadmistress in her latest article on the new Frugal Hacks website,

"the most important frugal tool you have is the way you think about things. All the frugal buys in the world won’t help us live within our means until we change the way we think about what we need and what we want."

So, to get to the point, I bought a new jar of peanut butter. We had used it once. It was left on the table after breakfast (we gotta have peanut butter on our pancakes!), and the @#^!%$& cute, loveable cat got to it.

Here's the question: What would you do? Go ahead and vote. I've already made my decision. I'll tell you what I did later.




*For some reason when I posted this voting thingie, a strange color bar appeared at the top and bottom of my blog. I don't like that color! It doesn't belong but I can only make it disappear when I remove this post. Strange! I guess it will just have to stay there until this post is archived unless someone out there can tell me how I can fix it....

Whew!

I took this picture last Thursday (7/5/07). The top number is the time (p.m.), the middle number is the temperature in my house (!), and the bottom number is the temperature outside. Officially the high was (only) 102*. But my thermometer is usually right within about 2 degrees. We've been hot! Also, we've had power outages on four of the last five days. Not all day or anything - just a portion of the day. Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and today. When the power went out again today, I knew it was going to happen. I knew about 3 minutes before it happened! We pulled into the driveway from swimming lessons and an Idaho Power truck pulled up behind me. The driver said that he had tried to knock on my door (we weren't home) and tell us that they were about to turn off the power. I raced into the house to turn off the computer but I didn't get it powered down in time. Idaho Power did it for me. Anyway, they were replacing the transformer that kept failing (yeah!) and were actually going to move it off the pole in our backyard to a more accessible spot on a main road. Maybe now I can set the clocks and Jim won't laugh at me. It's become a joke between us that I keep setting the clocks night after night. I don't know why I didn't just give up except that I HAVE to know the time especially in the middle of the night. I hate to wake up and not know what time it is. Anywhoooo, while the three power guys were working in our backyard, Rebecca asked to take them a plate of cookies that I had made yesterday. I thought it was really appropriate that the cookies she took them were chocolate no-bake cookies! Can't bake without electricity...at least I can't! I have a gas oven/range and I can light the range with a lighter so I can use it during a power outage. I can light my broiler too but not the main part of the oven.

So anyway...I'm rambling now. Time to get to bed. G'night!

Spring has sprung at our home!

I'm still here

When I posted my Menu Plan Monday post below, I realized that I hadn't posted anything since the last Monday! I've had a busy week and blogging didn't make the priority list. Following is a short recap of my activities (besides the usual stuff) last week:

• Finishing up school. Micah is done with his work for this year and Rebecca has about 4-5 days left. Woo-hoo!
  
  
• Boise Bible College Spring Conference. We got to hear Dr. Ajai (ah-jay) Lall from the Central India Christian Mission speak all three nights of the Conference as well as hear him preach today at our church service. My friend, Scott Riggan, led worship each night. I got to see several people from Bible college days as well as see some people from back home in Oregon. It was a great week and my kids had a remarkable time too. Micah was wishing that the conference would last longer and Adam is still talking about going to the "Bible college"! It's so funny to hear a 3-year-old say Bible college. :-) Oh, and it was quite a trip seeing my son, Micah running around making fast friends with the son of a guy I went to school with who is now PROFESSOR Whittaker! Yikes.



• Jim got our garden area tilled up Saturday, (YEA, honey!) and I got my garden planted. This is my first garden in a couple of years. The garden area was looking pretty sad until yesterday. I planted:
  
  
  
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 2 green peppers
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 1 zucchini
  • 3 pumpkins
  • 1 parsley
  • 1 lettuce (The parsley and lettuce is for the benefit of our newest family member.)
  • a row of carrots
  • 2 rows of sweet onions
  • 2 rows of potatoes (I do live in Idaho!)
  • a second row of peas (the first row was planted about 6 weeks ago)



• We got the house cleaned up and had my in-laws over Saturday evening for hot dogs and other picnic fare. We enjoyed the very pleasant weather and the kids played in the newly tilled dirt. After that it was baths for the kids and bedtime for us all.

All in all it was a very busy, but productive week of breaking up fallow ground and planting seeds that will bring forth a harvest both temporal and eternal. I hope you have a great week.

Sing to the King

It's happened again! In researching a song on the internet I discovered that it is a re-write of a older song. This time it's the anthem Sing to the King. It has such great lyrics and powerful music. I love it. And it's based on a hymn written in 1910. I think that's really cool. I just ordered a CD by Passion Worship Band called Sacred Revolution that has Sing to the King on it. In a description for a different album by Passion I found this quote:

While the modern worship movement has revolutionized Christian music, lead worshippers realized that in their zeal to write cutting-edge church music they forgot the songs that were cutting that "edge" once upon a time. Add some creative contemporary arrangements and electricity to the originals and you have the composite that makes up the Ancient and Modern Hymns collection.

I very much agree with that. At church I often think of the Mother Goose ditty:

Make new friends but keep the old one is silver and the other gold.

I miss the old hymns so much. I don't have much trouble with most of the newer worship songs (some ARE fluffy, but then again so are some of the old hymns), but I miss the old ones. I'd love to maintain a better balance. To me, it's a bit like having fun and cooing over the new babies in the family and ignoring the grandparents. There is room for them all and something to be learned and enjoyed from them all.

Anyway, I wanted to post the lyrics for Sing to the King. Click here to hear Passion Worship Band sing it.

Sing to the King
Billy Foote

Sing to the King who is coming to reign
Glory to Jesus, the Lamb that was slain
Life and salvation, His empire shall bring
Joy to the nations when Jesus is King!

So come, let us sing a song
A song declaring we belong
To Jesus
He is all we need
Lift up a heart of praise
Sing now with voices raised
To Jesus
Sing to the King!

For His returning, we watch and we pray
We will be ready the dawn of that day
We'll join in singing with all the redeemed
'Cause Satan is vanquished, and Jesus is King!

Read here an article that Billy Foote wrote about his reworking of this song.

I find it interesting that many of the songs that I fall in love with seem to have been written long ago. I guess I'm a die-hard traditionalist!

I Am From...

I first saw an "I Am From" essay on A Path Made Straight. I followed her link and used (sorta) the template she suggested. I LOVE how she ended her essay and I used incredible self-control to NOT use her ending!

---

I Am From

I am from banana-seat bicycles, Pop Shoppe soda, creamed honey on toast, and blue & green shag carpeting.

I am from a home with solar panels; drapes sticking to the frozen condensation on the sliding glass door; old, mysterious, non-functioning heating vents; and an attic with an old lifejacket and a huge boot hanging from the rafters.

I am from slender home-grown carrots with a "little dirt that never hurt", bluebells, dogwood trees, and blackberry vines creeping through the fence.

I am from Cones and Hoyts, Macdonalds and Foxes, Christmases of treasure hunts instead of stockings, word games, late night returns from holidays up north, and people talking very fast. Non-stop.

I am from "Sweet dreams" and "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. If they do, take a shoe, and beat them 'til they're black and blue", and gift songs before bed.

I am from Wednesday night services, singspirations, Bible drills, and revival meetings. I am from evangelism filmstrips in homes I visited with my dad, the "bee"attitudes, and all-church retreats.

I am from the Pacific Northwest, the coast, the Willamette Valley. I am from broccoli/cauliflower/tofu casserole, clam chowder, and pecan pie.

I am from an uncle who, as a boy, built a chair in the basement that was too big to move out of the room; from two aunts adopted from Korea; from a grandfather who was a World War II glider man with the 101st Airborne Division; and a great-great-grandfather who was a missionary to China

I am from Mossyrock, Milton, and Minneapolis. I am from Oregon, South Dakota, and Alaska. I am from America, China, and Brazil. I am from people who love each other, people who value each other, and people who enjoy each other.

I am from home.

A question for my 3 readers

I have a question for the three of you that read my blog:

Do you have any suggestions for alternate uses for pillow shams? I have, at last count, seven pillow shams. I don't use them for their intended purpose because it's just too much work to put a pillow sham on the pillow, take it off for sleeping and then put it back on in the morning. I have about 1000 other things to do that are more important than that. I also don't have space in my room or in my life to use them as decorative pillows. Pillows that I would keep in the sham and then just take off the bed for the night. My bedroom is WAAAY too small for extra pillows to be lying around the floor at night. I know I could just throw them away and be done with it, but it seems like a huge waste to do that. The shams ARE pretty and it's such a big chunk of fabric, I can't stand the thought of tossing them. Am I being too much of a pack rat? Should I throw them away already or is there a scathingly brilliant use for them? Please help.

I love good deals

I went to Macy's today to spend some Christmas money. I got a dress for Abby for NEXT Christmas, a shirt to go with a jumper Abby has right now, and a baby's-first-Christmas outfit for some Oregon friends whose baby will be six months old next Christmas. It was so fun. Below you can see what I bought and the great deal I got!!





Yes, I know. I didn't REALLY save $52.01 because I never would have purchased those items at those prices in the first place, but come on, it's still fun isn't it!?!?!? J

My turn's coming.....

My bloggy Christmas present (to myself) is almost here! :-)